The objective of this project is to determine the pattern of chromosomal changes in cancer, particulary in hematologic disorders such as acute and chronic myelogenous leukemia. The nonrandom patterns that are observed can then be correlated with (1) specific types of leukemia, (2) specific clinical signs evident during the initial phase of leukemia, and (3) clinical response of the patient to treatment. We recently summarized our data regarding 50 patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia and showed that patients with acute myelocytic leukemia and a normal karyotype had a median survival of 18 months whereas those with an abnormal karyotype had a median survival of only 2 months. Patients with acute myelomonocytic leukemia showed no such correlation between karyotype and clinical course. Moreover, we observed that the only two patients in this series with acute promyelocytic leukemia, were the only two who had an interestitial deletion of the long arm of No. 17. We are currently studying other cancers with known etiologies to determine whether there is a relationship between the etiologic agent and the karyotypic pattern seen in the tumor.